Back to the main page

Mailing List Logs for ShadowRN

Message no. 1
From: me@******.net (X3K6A2)
Subject: (visibility of Synaptic Accelerator) Initiative Question
Date: Wed, 13 Aug 2003 19:39:37 +0200
> Mr. B on the other hand can never have his Boosted Reflexes removed, nor can
> they be turned off. I'm not 100% sure about the Synaptic Accelerator, but I
> don't think it can be turned off.

Is the Synaptic Accelerator bad, in general it seems to me that
bioware, doesn't have the negative side effects (shooting third
persons) cyber has, but i can't quote a rule to this case.
Message no. 2
From: maxnoel_fr@*****.fr (Max Noel)
Subject: (visibility of Synaptic Accelerator) Initiative Question
Date: Wed, 13 Aug 2003 23:10:37 +0200
Le mercredi, 13 aoû 2003, à 19:39 Europe/Paris, X3K6A2 a écrit :

>
>> Mr. B on the other hand can never have his Boosted Reflexes removed,
>> nor can
>> they be turned off. I'm not 100% sure about the Synaptic Accelerator,
>> but I
>> don't think it can be turned off.
>
> Is the Synaptic Accelerator bad, in general it seems to me that
> bioware, doesn't have the negative side effects (shooting third
> persons) cyber has, but i can't quote a rule to this case.

No, it does have them. The M&M rules for effects of augmented initive
only mention initiative dice, not their source. I apply the "jumping
the gun" rule for any character with an augmented initiative, be it
cyber, bio or magic. That only applies for physical initiative, of
course, deckers and riggers aren't affected. As for shapeshifters and
other critters with a natural initiative of 2D6 or more, the jury is
still debating as that case hasn't been encountered yet.

-- Wild_Cat
maxnoel_fr@*****.fr -- ICQ #85274019
"Look at you hacker... A pathetic creature of meat and bone, panting
and sweating as you run through my corridors... How can you challenge a
perfect, immortal machine?"
Message no. 3
From: nightgyr@*********.com.au (GreyWolf)
Subject: (visibility of Synaptic Accelerator) Initiative Question
Date: Thu, 14 Aug 2003 15:03:03 +1000
> >> Mr. B on the other hand can never have his Boosted Reflexes removed,
> >> nor can
> >> they be turned off. I'm not 100% sure about the Synaptic Accelerator,
> >> but I
> >> don't think it can be turned off.
> >
> > Is the Synaptic Accelerator bad, in general it seems to me that
> > bioware, doesn't have the negative side effects (shooting third
> > persons) cyber has, but i can't quote a rule to this case.
>
> No, it does have them. The M&M rules for effects of augmented initive
> only mention initiative dice, not their source. I apply the "jumping
> the gun" rule for any character with an augmented initiative, be it
> cyber, bio or magic. That only applies for physical initiative, of
> course, deckers and riggers aren't affected. As for shapeshifters and
> other critters with a natural initiative of 2D6 or more, the jury is
> still debating as that case hasn't been encountered yet.

As far as it goes, synaptic accellerators have another side effect which can
be pretty detrimental. All bioware can take stress damage and unlike
cyberware, they tend to get worse as they go rather than just stop working.

In fact, the stress on some bioware can be more fatal then a bullet to the
head. (using the sleep regulator or the heart 'replacement' bioware as
examples) cant think of a worse way to go than to suddenly not be able to
sleep at all (and go stark raving mad) or have your ticker stop mid stride
because you'd been overexerting yourself too much.

Personally, I also apply the "jumpy syndrome" to all init dice boosts in the
physical realm, though like wired reflexes, I allow adepts a free switch to
turn theirs on and off at will (free action).

GreyWolf
Message no. 4
From: ShadowRN@********.demon.co.uk (Paul J. Adam)
Subject: (visibility of Synaptic Accelerator) Initiative Question
Date: Wed, 13 Aug 2003 22:57:04 +0100
In article <960695C3-CDD2-11D7-89F6-000393CBC88E@*****.fr>, Max Noel
<maxnoel_fr@*****.fr> writes
>As for shapeshifters and other critters with a natural initiative of
>2D6 or more, the jury is still debating as that case hasn't been
>encountered yet.

I tend to give shapeshifters the ability to control their reflexes..
they were born with them, after all. But then I've got a cat living in
my house and I use her as a guide as to how a shapeshifter would behave
:) Fast, sharp, slick, but still not human.


>"Look at you hacker... A pathetic creature of meat and bone, panting
>and sweating as you run through my corridors... How can you challenge a
>perfect, immortal machine?"

Mmmm... System Shock...

(Renraku Arcology was _so_ stolen from that game...)

--
Paul J. Adam

Further Reading

If you enjoyed reading about (visibility of Synaptic Accelerator) Initiative Question, you may also be interested in:

Disclaimer

These messages were posted a long time ago on a mailing list far, far away. The copyright to their contents probably lies with the original authors of the individual messages, but since they were published in an electronic forum that anyone could subscribe to, and the logs were available to subscribers and most likely non-subscribers as well, it's felt that re-publishing them here is a kind of public service.

Thwap!